Monday, November 9, 2015

Luke Cui. IF ON ANY WINTER'S NIGHT A TRAVELER

Join us for the second installment of the Semiosalong series Semiotics
of Death. Thursday November 12th, 18.00 at Arhiiv.

Does death exist? Is there a dividing line
between life and death? Hard science doesn’t seem to give us the answer because
it only tells us that we are each made up of numerous cells, some of which die
each day. In a way we can say we’re in a constant process of dying and being
born, but none of these cellular deaths prepare us for our actual deaths. Death
remains a mystery, despite some efforts to personify it and others to convince
us that we know exactly what the afterlife will be like. Death is the closest
we can come to infinity, but since it ends existence, even becoming part of
infinity does not mean we will ever understand it. In the meantime, we’ve each
a finite existence to try wrapping our minds around it before going the way of
the tree or mushroom.

You are about to begin listening to Luke
Cui’s lecture IF ON ANY WINTER'S NIGHT A TRAVELER. Relax. Anticipate. Forget
about your assignments and bills for an hour or so. Let the world around you
fade. Best to leave the door open; there might be people coming late. Maybe
they aren’t even people, but masses of cells continuously dying and being born,
in which case, you might as well close the door, especially if they are masses
of cells you don’t like, or cells that have never read poetry, run from a
shadow, or gotten philosophical over poor Yorick’s skull. But you never know.
Maybe some of them are people, after all, so leave the door open just to be
sure...